Beau Dodson's weather analysis for the southern Illinois and western Kentucky area.

February 4, 2013: A few showers on Monday and Thursday

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By Beau Dodson

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Feb. 3, 2013
12:01 a.m.

February 4-6, 2013This blog is best viewed with Mozilla Firefox. There could be issues with spacing on Internet Explorer

Good Monday morning everyone! I have switch the blog up just a little bit. I am going to try and give you all of your weather tracking tools at the bottom three quarters of the page. The top quarter of the page will be my current thoughts and comments concerning what I am seeing on the models and the latest data.There will be a chance for showers on Monday in the area. Not expecting much in the way of rainfall accumulation. Less than 0.25" - for those who pick up a shower or two.Another chance for showers will occur on Thursday. Right now it appears to mainly be a shower event. I can't completely rule out some thunder. Check back for an update as we move through the week.This is what the surface map is forecast to look like - this is from the NAM model. The pink, purple, and blue colors represent precipitation. Image from www.wright-weather.com

I am watching a larger storm system for the coming weekend into early next week. This system should bring showers and perhaps thunderstorms into the area. Right now I am thinking Sunday/Monday will be the main cold front passage - that would bring the best chance of rain.A bit soon to make a call on whether or not severe storms might occur with this next system. The models are showing a fairly deep area of low pressure moving to our northwest. Still several days to monitor the track and intensity of this system. Some of the latest data actually shows the area of low pressure moving further south - that might help keep our area out of the severe weather threat zone. Monitoring and will update through the week.Remember that an area of low pressure rotates counter-clockwise. If a low passes to our west or northwest then it pulls warm and moist air northward. Once it moves off to our east then it pulls colder air into our region. This is why it warms up ahead of a cold front in our region and cools down once the front has passed. Assuming the low passes off to our west and north.If an area of low pressure passes to our south, during the winter months, then we start thinking about colder air in our region and snow or wintry precipitation (not always - but sometimes).Numbers are still coming in from the severe weather outbreak last week. This outbreak will rank in the top three January outbreaks on record (number of tornadoes). It was an impressive event.The blue dots on the image below represent wind damage reports. The red dots are tornado reports.More information on the SPC page - click here

The longer range is starting to show some colder shots of air after this week. A couple of storm systems may track south of our region. This might mean snow for some areas of the south-lands and southeast United States. A bit early to make a call on storm tracks. Stay tuned!

We have a number of new radars available on our Weather Observatory web-site !--- We now offer St Louis, Mt Vernon, Evansville, Poplar Bluff, Cape Girardeau, Marion, Paducah, Hopkinsville, Memphis, Nashville, and Dyersburg Interactive City Radars. I have added all of eastern Kentucky, as well.We also have the two regional radars and now offer you three GR Earth radars.Click here for our radar page - WEATHER RADARS------ We also have a new interactive radar - you can view that radar by clicking here.

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Want to learn more about how to use our radars? Here is a video with more information

The links above are interactive and you can move around the United States by simply clicking on the national map - or from the pull down menu where it says regions and US States..To view the interactive warning map - click here..

.You can also now view the probability of X amount of rain (you pick the value on the web-site) in a six hour period of time. Those maps can be viewed here. .Current conditions - including temperatures, apparent temperatures, heat index, wind chill, wind, pressure, humidity, dew points, and more - click here.

If you are a weather enthusiast then I recommend listening to WeatherBrains each week! For a more in-depth look at what is happening in meteorology.

Now is a GREAT time to buy a NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio. Better to have one before storms strike than to be without one during an event. I recommend the Midland Model 300 NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio - that is what I use here at my house!